Distinguish regurgitation from vomiting in veterinary patients.

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The key idea is that regurgitation is a passive expulsion of undigested food from the esophagus, and it happens without nausea or the retching motions you see with vomiting. Because the problem is in the esophagus, the swallowed food doesn’t reach the stomach, so the animal often loses a meal or part of it shortly after swallowing, with no abdominal effort or nausea. In contrast, vomiting is an active process driven by nausea, with repeated retching and abdominal contractions that propel stomach contents upward. The material in vomiting may be digested or partially digested and can include bile if the stomach has emptied into the duodenum. This distinction helps point to esophageal diseases like megaesophagus or strictures for regurgitation, rather than gastric or systemic diseases that more commonly cause vomiting. That’s why the best description is that regurgitation is passive expulsion of undigested food without nausea or retching, usually from esophageal disease. The other ideas don’t fit: regurgitation does not require vomiting, it is not limited to cats, and nausea/retching are not typical of regurgitation.